Photo: Stefan Czapski · CC BY-SA 2.0Per resident, Tower Hamlets records more crime than nine in ten UK towns
Its police logs show 43.3 violent and sexual offences and 23.0 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents a year. Violent crime was up 5% in a year. Add to that, it grades D for safety on crimes police recorded inside Tower Hamlets’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026: #28 of 33 in London. Theft from the person: police recorded 3,040 locally in the 12 months to August 2026, 9.8 per 1,000 residents against 0.7 in a typical town its size.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Tower Hamlets
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 5% more violent crime per resident in Tower Hamlets than in the year before; across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage fell 6% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 40 UK towns and cities of 218,000 to 420,000 people, Tower Hamlets has the 29th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Leicester, Wolverhampton and Derby, higher than Belfast, Plymouth and Northampton. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
32% of Tower Hamlets’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 6% in the lowest-crime 30%. Neighbourhood ranks ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Tower Hamlets: D for safety, and why
A firm grade. Built on 61,359 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Tower Hamlets against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Tower Hamlets runs highest on theft from the person (9.8 per 1,000 against 0.7), bicycle theft (3.7 per 1,000 against 0.9) and robbery (4.4 per 1,000 against 1.4). Other crime and criminal damage & arson sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 12,184 | 39.2 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 10,897 | 35 | 17.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 4,145 | 13.3 | 6.6 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 4,134 | 13.3 | 10.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 3,040 | 9.8 | 0.7 |
| Public order | not graded | 2,811 | 9 | 7.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 2,662 | 8.6 | 3.8 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 2,653 | 8.5 | 4.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 2,564 | 8.2 | 3.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 1,409 | 4.5 | 7.5 |
| Robbery | Violent | 1,377 | 4.4 | 1.4 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 1,145 | 3.7 | 0.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 476 | 1.5 | 2.1 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 296 | 1 | 1.1 |
“Violent” is police.uk’s violence and sexual offences (which includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury), robbery and possession of weapons. Anti-social behaviour isn’t a crime category; shoplifting and other theft happen mostly in shops and town centres rather than to residents, so neither counts in the grade.
September 2025 to August 2026, per 1,000 residents. The tick on each bar is the typical (median) town among UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more.
Lowest recorded crime in Island Gardens, St Dunstan's and St Katharine's & Wapping; highest in City of London
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Island Gardens | 15,308 | 24.7 | 9.8 | |
| St Dunstan's | 14,750 | 31.1 | 16.3 | |
| St Katharine's & Wapping | 11,960 | 28.6 | 20.7 | |
| Bromley South | 13,962 | 32.5 | 16.8 | |
| Blackwall & Cubitt Town | 21,429 | 30.3 | 20.7 | |
| Limehouse | 6,554 | 31.3 | 23.5 | |
| Bow West | 13,714 | 36.9 | 21.3 | |
| Bow East | 19,524 | 38.3 | 22.3 | |
| Mile End | 21,653 | 39.3 | 22.8 | |
| Whitechapel | 18,837 | 40.6 | 21.9 | |
| Lansbury | 21,711 | 39.8 | 24.9 | |
| Shadwell | 13,275 | 46.8 | 20.4 | |
| St Peter's | 19,784 | 45.3 | 22.7 | |
| Weavers | 13,337 | 44 | 26.4 | |
| Poplar | 8,065 | 45.3 | 25.6 | |
| Bromley North | 11,703 | 45.7 | 26.7 | |
| Stepney Green | 12,339 | 48.6 | 24.3 | |
| Canary Wharf | 17,972 | 53.9 | 27.4 | |
| Bethnal Green | 21,089 | 65.2 | 23 | |
| Spitalfields & Banglatown | 13,337 | 58.6 | 33.1 | |
| City of London | 769 | 161.7 | 80.6 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 3,282 | 52% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 3,081 | 41% shoplifting & theft |
| College and university buildings | 2,094 | 29% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 1,946 | 43% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 1,916 | 29% shoplifting & theft |
| Hospitals | 1,006 | 64% violent |
| Conference and exhibition centres | 804 | 28% shoplifting & theft |
| Police stations | 779 | 41% violent |
| Nightclubs | 485 | 32% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 270 | 39% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so City of London records 3.9× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Tower Hamlets. police.uk places each crime at an anonymous map point; some are named for the kind of place (a supermarket, a car park), and each row adds up every place of that kind in Tower Hamlets. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Tower Hamlets’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Police in Tower Hamlets identify a suspect less often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 85% of Tower Hamlets’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 46% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (36% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% of violent and 3% of household crimes reached court.
The latest outcome police.uk shows for each crime recorded in the first of the three years (September 2023 to August 2024), so most cases have closed. 20,693 crimes.
Crime in Tower Hamlets per 1,000 residents
A crime isn’t a victim: one person can report several, and crimes in a town centre often involve visitors rather than residents.
And about 21 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 40 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
32% of Tower Hamlets residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
6% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 32% in the highest-crime 20%. The crime domain scores the risk of violence, burglary, theft and criminal damage where people live, so it can read differently from the town-wide rate, which counts crimes where they happened.
Tower Hamlets’s residents by the crime decile of their neighbourhood (LSOA, about 1,500 people) in the English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (crime domain), where 1 is the highest-crime 10% of England’s neighbourhoods and 10 the lowest.
Towns its size: Tower Hamlets comes 29th of 40
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harrow London | 260,534 | 23.3 | 15.4 | 16 | C+ |
| 2 | Bexley London | 246,074 | 26.1 | 17.5 | 14.3 | C |
| 3 | Barnet London | 388,572 | 25.3 | 21 | 18.8 | C |
| 4 | Bromley London | 325,469 | 25.7 | 20.8 | 17.4 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 26 | Belfast Belfast | 293,298 | 45.1 | 19 | 22.6 | D |
| 27 | Plymouth Devon | 266,970 | 49.4 | 14.9 | 16.2 | D |
| 28 | Northampton Northamptonshire | 243,527 | 46.1 | 19.7 | 20.2 | D |
| 29 | Tower Hamlets London | 311,072 | 43.3 | 23 | 39.6 | D |
| 30 | Portsmouth Hampshire | 223,324 | 53.5 | 16.8 | 22.8 | D |
| 31 | Coventry West Midlands | 344,289 | 47.6 | 23.7 | 20.2 | D |
| 32 | Newcastle upon Tyne Tyne and Wear | 286,472 | 47.8 | 24.2 | 29.9 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 40 | Bradford West Yorkshire | 333,968 | 72.2 | 28.3 | 19.3 | D− |
Safety letters rank against every UK town of 1,000 or more; the order here is context only.
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Tower Hamlets, and others in London.
How crime in Tower Hamlets has moved
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling three-month rate, per 1,000 residents a year. In the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before: violent +5% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -6% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft +8% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour -8% (towns its size -2%).
19 people died in collisions on Tower Hamlets’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 5,248 collisions with injuries inside Tower Hamlets in five years, in which 19 people died (13 were pedestrians and 2 were cyclists). 847 people were killed or seriously injured: 256 on foot and 263 on a bicycle.
That is 1.2 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (1.1, 210 towns).
Counting serious injuries too, Tower Hamlets had 54.5 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (30.3). 30% of them were on foot, against 31% across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more.
Casualties are counted where the collision happened, not where people lived: a main road through town adds through-traffic, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Seriously injured uses the Department for Transport’s adjusted figures, which even out the police forces’ different ways of recording injuries. There’s no national rate here: more than half of road deaths in England and Wales (58%) happen outside every town’s built-up area. Source: DfT road casualty statistics (STATS19), 2021–2025.
Collisions police recorded inside Tower Hamlets’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Tower Hamlets
Tower Hamlets records more graded crime per resident than 5 of its 7 neighbours; only City of London and Islington record more. Hackney, 2.8 miles away, records 40.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Tower Hamlets’s 43.3.
Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Big public sites inside the boundary. police.uk counted 1,006 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Tower Hamlets’s rate, as they would for any town that has them.
- Where crimes happen, not where victims live. police.uk places each crime at a point near where it happened. Town centres with shops, stations, a hospital and nightlife record more crime per resident, and residents of nearby villages who come in to shop or go out are part of that count.
- Bigger towns record more per resident. Across UK towns, recorded crime per resident rises steeply with size, more than in the U.S., so a city’s grade sits low against the whole UK. The “towns its size” figures show where Tower Hamlets sits among towns like it; they are context and don’t change the grade.
- Points are approximate. police.uk moves each point to the nearest of a set of anonymous map points, so crimes near the edge of the built-up area can fall either side of it.
Questions about safety in Tower Hamlets
Is Tower Hamlets safe?
Police recorded 43.3 violent and sexual offences and 23 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Tower Hamlets’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 9% of UK towns. Among 40 UK towns of 218,000 to 420,000 people, Tower Hamlets is 29th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Tower Hamlets?
By council ward, Island Gardens, St Dunstan's and St Katharine's & Wapping record the least violent and household crime per resident: 24.7, 31.1 and 28.6 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 161.7 in City of London.
Is crime going up in Tower Hamlets?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 5%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 6%, shoplifting and theft rose 8% and anti-social behaviour fell 8%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Tower Hamlets town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 485 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 21% of them violent, and City of London ward records 161.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in July and was lowest in January.
What is the most common crime in Tower Hamlets?
Violence & sexual offences: 12,184 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came other theft (4,145) and shoplifting (4,134), with 10,897 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Tower Hamlets compare with Newham?
Newham records 38.9 violent and sexual offences and 23 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Tower Hamlets’s 43.3 and 23, over the same three years.
Sources: data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · MHCLG English Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain by LSOA (residents from ONS Census 2021) · Department for Transport road casualty statistics (STATS19), collisions 2021–2025, points inside the built-up-area boundary · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.